U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,250 discloses a blind matable miniature connector for interconnecting circuits between parallel circuit boards. The connector in this patent includes surface mountable C-shaped receptacle contacts, each having a spring arm that extends in a direction parallel to the mounting face of the housing and is deflectable in a direction transverse to the axis of mating. The plug has surface mountable L-shaped contacts, each having a post that extends past the spring arm and is in spring biased engagement with the spring arm when the connectors are mated.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,884 discloses another connector for interconnecting circuits between parallel circuit boards. The surface mountable receptacle contact in this patent is L-shaped with the post extending toward the mating face of the connector housing. Each of the surface mountable plug contacts includes a base and a U-shaped spring arm having a free end, the spring arm extending toward the mating face of the plug housing. As the receptacle and plug are mated, the free end of the spring arm engages the post of the receptacle contact and is moved inwardly toward the other arm.
With the increased miniaturization of electronic equipment, such as small portable computers and the like it is desirable to have connectors for mother boards and daughter boards that are mated in a parallel configuration. This requires a plurality of connectors on the mother board that must be mated with a corresponding plurality of complementary connectors on the daughter card. These connectors must all be "blind mated". The alignment of a single connector is more readily accomplished than the alignment of multiple connectors during simultaneous mating. Given the close center line spacing of the electrical contacts in these connectors it is extremely important that alignment occur prior to the contacts engaging so that the delicate contacts are not damaged during the mating process.
In manufacturing circuit boards to which multiple connectors are to be mounted, the circuit boards are first provided with arrays of contact pads in the desired locations for the various connectors for interconnecting to the contacts of the various connectors to be secured thereto. Additionally the boards may also be provided with a pattern of precisely dimensioned through-holes or other means for aligning the connectors to the board. The circuit boards are manufactured within the desired or allowed tolerance range for locating the arrays of contact pads with respect to each other and for precisely locating the alignment holes with respect to each array. Despite the precisioned care taken, the problems associated with tolerance build up in mounting multiple connectors to a circuit board are well recognized in the art. The result is that all the connectors mounted to a daughter card may not be precisely aligned with the corresponding complementary connectors on a mother board. Thus when simultaneously mating the plurality of connector pairs on the two boards, the alignment features are provided at the mating faces of the respective connectors to engage and force the respective pairs into alignment for proper mating. Initially this force may be applied or transferred to the soldered connections on the respective boards in conventional arrangements. The stresses applied to the soldered connectors, if maintained after the boards are mated, may be sufficient to break one or more of the soldered connections over an extended period of time, thus adversely affecting the performance of the assembly. The cumulative effect of locating the patterns on the board, placing and securing the connectors on their respective boards each within the allowable tolerance range affects the matability of the multiple pairs of connectors and enhances the chances for misalignment therebetween. It is desirable, therefore, to provide a means whereby each of the connector pairs can be aligned prior to the mating of the contacts. It is further desirable that forces required to align the respective connectors be isolated from the soldered surface mounted connections after the mating has taken place. It is also desirable that any stress to the soldered connections be minimized after the respective connectors have been mated.